Ineffectual

Having cleared the first three levels of stage two, there would be a different monster in the next level.

If it was going to be like the last stage, the difficulty would not just steadily increase and would even drop after three levels, making level four easier than level three. Three wolves would probably be more difficult to fight than the one monster of level four, but the individual strength of that monster would be higher than a grey wolf.

Looking at the difficulty, Yasuo could compare level two with level four, level four with level six, and so on. So Yasuo thought that he could get a little bit of rest before it would get more difficult again.

While thinking about this, a minute had quickly gone by and the environment began to change.

'Wow, I have never seen anything like this.' Yasuo thought as he looked around in the new environment.

Standing in the middle of a red-sanded desert where dunes stretched out as far as he could see, forming a mirage all-around the distant red-sanded dunes caused by the scorching heat.

Yasuo had never been in this kind of environment before, let alone fight in it. As he stood there, his feet were slowly getting buried in the sand. 'I had never thought that the terrain would be a limiting factor..' Yasuo thought as he constantly lifted his feet trying to stay on top of the sand.

While Yasuo was preoccupied with the environment, the monster had spawned. It was a giant scorpion looking monster, which Yasuo hadn't really read up on. The only thing he knew about the monster was that it was pretty tricky to defeat in close combat.

Yasuo immediately thought of using his ice spear, his ranged attack, to defeat the giant scorpion, but knowing that he had to fight a total of six giant scorpions in the coming three levels, he refrained from using the Ice spear as it would take a minimum of six ice spears if he was lucky, which would cost him around a third of his mana.

'This might be more challenging than I anticipated for the fourth level.' Yasuo thought while looking at the giant scorpion.

Carefully observing it, Yasuo was thinking of ways to attack it, but as the anatomy was so vastly different from any monster he had fought, he couldn't come up with a good plan of attack.

Wanting to conserve mana, Yasuo had decided to fight it in close combat, but he still put up his mana barrier just to be sure.

Slowly walking towards the giant scorpion, it didn't move an inch. Yasuo was confused by this as he was now in range of the monster, and decided to swing at it.

But before he could even move his dagger an inch, the scorpion begun its attack with an inhuman reaction speed, quickly extending its tail at Yasuo's head, breaking Yasuo's barrier, but slowing down the attack just enough to where Yasuo could jump back, avoiding the attack by a hairs width.

'I didn't even see his attack until it was too late, I would have been dead if it wasn't for my barrier….' Yasuo thought, while his heart was beating out of his chest.

Having distanced himself from the scorpion, Yasuo looked at it and noticed the scorpion hadn't moved.

'Okay that gives me time.' Thought Yasuo who started to reconsider his way of fighting the scorpion.

'Okay, scorpions have two ways to attack, with its claws and with its tail…. What exactly do I gain from that…?'

As Yasuo knew less about scorpions than he thought, he just tried to think logically. 'If I were a scorpion, what would be my weakness?'

Surprisingly, Yasuo got an idea from this, which he could safely test out and started immediately. Slowly stepping to the side of the monster, the motionless scorpion started to readjust itself to face Yasuo.

'That's it!' Yasuo thought excitedly.

'A scorpion can only attack if their prey is in front of them.' Yasuo theorized.

Being confident in this, Yasuo began approaching the giant scorpion again, and when he was only a few meters away from it, Yasuo started to speed up, moving from side to side. Trying to stay away from the front of the of the scorpion, Yasuo dashed to the side of it. Now being besides the scorpion, Yasuo quickly attacked, but his calculations were all wrong.

Before Yasuo could even react, his mana barrier was broken once again. The tail of the scorpion attacked him from the side. Yasuo didn't expect this at all, but didn't want to waste this chance. "[Stab]" Being in range of the scorpion, Yasuo stabbed its head with as much force as he could, piercing its armour and impaling its brain, immediately making the scorpion motionless.

With his heart racing and out of breath, Yasuo sat down before he finally saw the message:

~Level 34 clear. Level 35, starting in 60 seconds~

"There really is no way for me to easily defeat a giant scorpion, is there?" Yasuo said, trying to get conformation from himself. 'Damn it. With much effort, I used a lot of mana to defeat just one scorpion. The next level isn't going to be easy if I do it like this again, I should try using ice spear in the next level.' Yasuo thought, not even being sure if he could fight multiple giant scorpion in close combat.

Not even having fully rested because of the scorching heat, the next level began, and just like the usual pattern, two giant scorpions spawned.

This time Yasuo didn't even hesitate before putting his left hand toward the giant scorpion. Just thinking about it made the rune appear on Yasuo's forearm, not even wasting a second before using the spell "[Ice spear]".

With the ice spear forming, the giant scorpions stood motionless. 'They must have low intelligence.' Yasuo thought. Having thought about that, the ice spear had now fully formed and shot out towards the left scorpion.

*Crunch*

Without the scorpion having time to react, the ice spear had easily pierced its skull, defeating it in one hit.

'Wow, was it really that easy.' Yasuo thought as he defeated the scorpion without any effort unlike last time in close combat.

'I guess I shouldn't be mad about that because I can both fight in close combat and with ranged attacks.' Yasuo thought, feeling happy once again about having gotten the [Rune Possessor] class.

Unconsciously, Yasuo made a portfolio of the giant scorpion in his head. Noting down that it could be easily defeated with an ice spear.

Having noted this down, Yasuo thought about why ice spear easily defeated it, and he found the answer straight away. 'Scorpions may have a good reaction time, but their movement is slow, so they can't avoid the ice spear. Additionally to that, they are monsters who live in the desert, making an ice attack their weakness.'

Knowing that the ice spear was the perfect counter, Yasuo used the skill four more times and defeated all the scorpions with a single attack.

~Level 35 clear. Level 36, starting in 60 seconds~

~Level 36 clear. Level 37, starting in 60 seconds~

This level was not much trouble after having found out the scorpions' weakness, but he had now only less than one third of his mana left.

In the one minute rest period before the next level would start, Yasuo had fully realized how important a monsters' weakness really is. Of course he already knew it, but he hadn't expected it to make such a difference.

With this realisation Yasuo started the next level. The environment changed to something familiar again, an open grass field, finally feeling a cool breeze again after the scorching hot desert.

In front of him spawned a green monster, but not a green goblin he was familiar with, but a troll standing over four meters tall with a big wooden club in its hand.

'Yes! This is a pretty common monster. I have read up on trolls a lot.' Yasuo thought in excitement thinking of the best way to attack. 'Okay, I know that trolls are relatively slow, they also have a similar anatomy as humans and goblins, they have a relatively low intelligence and they have high regenerative powers.'

Taking all this into account, Yasuo thought his [ice spear] skill would again be most suited as it was his highest single point damage dealing attack. Being confident about this, Yasuo put up his hand again as the troll was slowly striding towards him. "[Ice spear]"

The ice spear had enough time to form as the troll's movement was slow. With a ten meter distance between them, the ice spear shot out directly hitting the troll in its chest where his heart was. Having pierced its skin, the ice spear got stopped by the thick layer of fat of the troll, only having pierced about fifteen centimetres into it.

'What?!'

The troll was hardly faced by this. Only stopping its stride for a second, pulling the ice spear out, before starting to walk towards Yasuo again.

Yasuo was surprised it didn't pierce further, but didn't have time to waste and started to observed the wound of the troll, which was now visible after it had pulled the ice spear out. Behind the pink layer of fat, Yasuo could see something dark red.

'That is it's heart!' Yasuo thought.

While Yasuo could see its exposed heart, he noticed that the troll already started to regenerate and the fat was beginning to cover its heart.

'No, I can't waste this opportunity!'

Without hesitation Yasuo sprinted towards the troll. As he was a few meters away from it, the troll began its attack, making a wide swing with its wooden club. As the attack was unbelievably slow compared to any other monsters' attack, Yasuo could easily dodge it.

Having gone past its wooden club, which struck the ground, Yasuo was now directly in front of its body. Jumping as high as he could, Yasuo faced the wound, which was closing at a rapid speed.

Not taking any chances, Yasuo used another skill "[Stab]" and extended his arm out as much as he could into the troll, stabbing its heart and making the troll stumble and fall on its back, causing a massive tremble from its big stature. Even with its heart stabbed, Yasuo could see the troll's arm starting to move in the corner of his eye.

Yasuo's immediate response was to violently move the dagger around, which was still stabbed in the troll's heart, shredding it apart, making the troll scream in agony and desperately giving one last struggle by shaking its whole body, before becoming completely limp.

~Level 37 clear. Level 38, starting in 60 seconds~

'That was crazy.' Yasuo thought.

The troll didn't even really form a threat to Yasuo at any point in the fight, but after using two of Yasuo's strongest skills, it wasn't even defeated and still struggled with all its might.